Local

Sun City Carolina Lakes’ developer has rejected Lancaster County’s demand that it secure a $3 million line of credit to handle storm-drain repairs before the county will take responsibility for all of the development’s roads.
In a Nov. 15 letter, Atlanta-based Pulte Group contends that under its 2005 development agreement, the county is clearly responsible for both the roads and the storm-water system at the massive Indian Land project.
The letter gives the county 10 days to accept the company’s position or face legal action.

An angst-ridden assassin e-mailed Bill Ardrey of Lancaster last week with a proposition.
I’ve been hired to kill you, says the hitman, who identifies himself as Ofra Vaizman. But I really don’t want to, and if you pay me enough to leave the country, you can live.
“I work for my boss Edwardo Sanchez of Hoalim Clan who’s a drug trafficker… and he has assigned me to kill you…. I cannot continue ANYMORE. I cannot kill ANY more lives because this is NOT the kind of life I’ve chosen to live.”

Lancaster Mayor John Howard calls South Carolina’s process for protesting municipal elections “ridiculous” and says the General Assembly needs to revamp the law, allowing more time to resolve contested elections.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that something needs to be done. It needs to be looked at,” said Howard, who serves on the Municipal Association of South Carolina Board of Directors. “That needs to happen.”

Six cats and four dogs from the Lancaster County Animal Shelter got a private flight Nov. 9 to their new home in East Hampton, New York.
The trip was a coordinated effort by animal rescue groups, a charitable pilot, the shelter and two Lancaster County Council members.

A freak accident that left police Lt. Phillip Hall blind in one eye has also left him with a huge stack of medical bills.
Now his friends, church family and co-workers at the Lancaster Police Department are stepping into to help with a barbecue fundraiser from 11 a.m. to 1 today at Camp Creek Baptist Church, 998 Potter Road.

Seven of the county’s new fire engines are here, and more will be picked up in Roebuck this week.
The county purchased 18 new vehicles – 10 custom cab engines, two custom cab pumper tankers, five commercial chassis rescue trucks and one commercial chassis tanker – in late 2015 through a $7.2 million bond package.
So far, seven of the custom cab engines are here. They will be staged at the Antioch, Belltown, Buford, Camp Creek, Flat Creek, McDonald Green and Shiloh Zion volunteer fire departments.

Drifting smoke from dozens of wildfires in the Appalachians have clouded local skies and created unhealthy air for anyone with breathing issues such as asthma, COPD or emphysema.
The lingering smoke prompted the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to issue an air-quality alert to the very young and old or anyone with preexisting breathing problems.

After a five-hour standoff during which county and state SWAT teams surrounded his home, a Lancaster man was charged this weekend with holding his 19-month-old son and the child’s mother hostage.
Jason Scott Taylor, 30, of 3821 Camp Creek Road, was arrested early Saturday on two counts of kidnapping, two counts of pointing and presenting a firearm and one count each of first-degree domestic violence and unlawful neglect of a child.

Lancaster County Republicans picked Allen Blackmon as their new chairman Thursday night, replacing Brandon Newton, who stepped aside after being elected to the state House this week.

Blackmon, who worked for the state Department of Revenue for 30 years before retiring in 2012, lives in Heath Springs. He ran for county auditor this year but lost a primary runoff with fellow Republican Susan Hunter Wallace.